October 20, 2008

Factory sealed, melamine test for biscuits

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has sealed a factory producing two types of local biscuits discovered by a Hong Kong government laboratory as containing excessive amounts of melamine.
Its Food Safety and Quality Division director, Noraini Mohd Othman, said in a statement last night that the products would be tested for melamine.
She was commenting on a Reuters report that an excessive amount of melamine had been found in Munchy’s Mini Crackers with Peanut Butter and Munchy’s Mini Crackers with Cheese Cream, produced by Munchy Food Industries Sdn Bhd.
Meanwhile, she said the ministry had cleared 11 more food products of melamine.
They are Amoy Flour Vermicilli (Sau Tao), Chocolate Cookies (Golden Fuji), Chocolate Drink (Garden Stone), Cream Flavour Biscuits (Hong Da Food), Creamy Peanut Butter (Kinus), Crips Chocolate Flavour Cracker (Golden Fuji), Fiber Cracker (Aji), Gula Udang Merah (Sanwa), House of Steamed Potato (Silang), Saltine Crackers (Four Seas) and The Original Danish Butter Cookies (Silang).
Noraini also advised consumers not to buy unlabelled biscuits at night and farmers’ markets, and check the contents of those with labels before buying them.
Consumers can contact the Food Safety and Quality Division at 03-88833655, 03-88833503, 03-88833652 and 03-88833500 or visit http://fsq.moh.gov.my for details.
Meanwhile, Munchy Food Industries chief executive officer C.K. Tan said none of its products contained any dairy-based ingredients from China.
The company would give full cooperation to the ministry, he said in a statement.
“As a reputable 18-year-old homegrown manufacturer of confectionary with a strong international brand presence, we consistently view consumer food safety as a top priority. We will continue to uphold this without any compromise.”
He claimed that independent certification agencies, namely Chemical Laboratory (M) Sdn Bhd and Pacific Lab Services of Zargo (Singapore), had certified its products as safe.